Addiction Flashcards
Define addiction
-a disorder in which the individual takes a substance or engages in a behaviour that is pleasurable (in the short-term) but eventually becomes compulsive with harmful consequences (in the long-term). Addiction is marked by physiological and/or psychological dependence, tolerances and withdrawal.
List the different characteristics of an addiction
Physical dependency, psychological dependency, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms
Describe physical dependency as a characteristic of addiction
-can occur with the long-term use of many drugs.
-people who arephysically dependent on a particular substance need to take the drug in order to feel ‘normal’
- it can be demonstrated by the presence of unpleasant physical symptoms (withdrawal symptoms) if the person suddenly abstains from the drug.
Describe psychological dependency as a characteristic of addiction
- occurs when a drug becomes a central part of the individuals thoughts and emotions resulting in a strong urge to use the drug.
-its the belief or mental drive that the drug or activity is needed.
-a craving is an. Intense desire to repeat the experience associated with a particular drug or activity.
-the individual may feel unable to cope without a particular substance of activity, and the desire to use it again becomes so intense that it takes over their thinking entirely.
-psychological dependence leads to the drug/behaviour becoming a habit, despite the harmful consequences.
Describe tolerance as a characteristic of addiction
-occurs when an individuals response to a drug is reduced from repetitive exposure.
-this means they need even greater doses to produce the same effect on behaviour
-tolerance may occur because enzymes responsible for metabolising the drug do this more efficiently over time resulting in reduced concentrations in the blood, making the effect weaker.
- a second way is learned tolerance, which means that a user will experience reduced drug effects because they have learned to function normally when under the influence of a drug.
Describe withdrawal symptoms as a characteristic of addiction
-an addict experiencing unpleasant physical symptoms like headaches and low mood, and psychological symptoms like anxiety when they no longer have a substance in their system or haven’t engaged in the behaviour.
-withdrawal symptoms only occur after a tolerance has been built. So when the brain realises the substance is no longer in the body, the brain causes the body to seek out the substance to bring the levels back up.
List the possible different risk factors of addiction
Family influences, peers, genetic vulnerability, stress, personality
Describe family influences as a potential risk factor of addiction
- according to family influences, the key detriment to forming an addiction is the perceived parental approval. If adolescents have substance- abusing parents themselves then they’re more likely to engage with the substance themselves (biederman et al) due to 2 reasons:
1. They may believe their parents have no interest in monitoring their behaviour
2.exposure, adolescents are more likely to start using alcohol in families where its an everyday feature of family life or where there is a family history of alcohol addiction as they’ve been exposed to the substance.
-the SLT suggests addictive behaviours are learned by observing others. It involves imitation.
-the processes involved are attention to details of the behaviour, retention of important details, motivation to carry out the behaviour and repetitive reproduction of the actual addictive behaviour.
-motivation is influenced by vicarious reinforcement and identification.
-although rewards are indirect, the person watching develops an expectancy they’ll gain the same benefits if they imitate the addictive behaviours.
Describe peers as a possible risk factor of addiction
-peer pressure makes people with low self-esteem more vulnerable to addiction because they may believe their encouraged by the people around them to try addictive behaviours so they do it to feel happier and gain friends.
-peers are those of the same age and status as us and who have the same shared common values and standards of behaviour.
-SLT plays an important role in peer pressure , because the behaviour of peers is imitated in hope of receiving similar direct rewards.
-social identity theory (tajfel and turner) suggests that a significant part of an individual’s self-concept is formed as a result of groups of which they’re apart of ( in-groups). As it’s essential to be associated with them to be socially accepted, this makes individuals more likely to adopt their behaviours. Therefore, they are conforming to addiction to be seen as ‘normal’ (normative social influence).
Describe genetic vulnerability as a risk factor of addiction
- genes are not inevitable causes of addiction on their own but some people may believe vulnerable to addiction due to a predisposed biological vulnerability e.g. its hereditary.
Twin studies:
-some people appear to be born with a genetic vulnerability to substance abuse and other forms of ‘unhealthy’ behaviour.
-slutske et al found me twins had a higher concordance rate of both twins being pathological gamblers than dz twins.
-vink et al studied 1,527 Dutch twin pairs and found that the likelihood of becoming addicted to nicotine was influenced primarily (75%) by genetic factors.
D2 receptor gene:
- Blum and Payne suggest that individuals who are vulnerable to drug addiction have abnormally low numbers of D2 receptors
- it could be that taking the addictive substances , which raise the levels of dopamine helps the individuals to feel states of reward/happiness.
CYP2A6 enzyme:
-some individuals are better at metabolising certain substance3s and these individuals are at greater risk of developing addictions.
-Pianezza et al found some people lacked a fully functioning CYP2A6 enzyme which is responsible for metabolising nicotine and were found to smoke significantly less than those who had a fully functioning one. As the expression of this enzyme is genetically determined, it is theorised that those with fully functioning versions of the CYP2A6 enzyme are at greater genetic risk of nicotine addiction.
Describe stress as a risk factor of addiction
Self-medication:
-the self-medication model (Gelkopf et al) proposes that some individuals intentionally use different forms of pathological behaviour to ‘treat’ the psychological symptoms they experience because of everyday stressors in their life.
-research on drug abusers has shown that stress is one of the strongest predictors of relapse (Dawes et al) and increased drug cravings (sinha et al)
-although engaging in such behaviour may not actually make things better, the perception that it does is instrumental in that behaviour becoming an addiction.
Traumatic stress:
-people exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to addictions. For example, Robins et al interviewed US soldiers within a year of their return from the Vietnam war. Of these, almost half had used either opium or heroin during their tour of duty, with about 20% reporting that they had developed physical or psychological dependence for heroin at some point during their time in Vietnam.
Traumatic experiences in childhood:
-Anderson and Teicher suggest that early experiences of severe stress have damaging effects on the brain in a sensitive period of development. This creates a vulnerability to addiction by early adulthood, for example a young child who witnesses a stressful traumatic event like sexual abuse could be more at risk to developing addiction as their brain areas are now more susceptible to stress.
Describe personality as a risk factor of addiction
The addiction-prone personality:
-Barney’s et al developed the addiction prone personality (APP) scale as a way of assessing the influence of personality factors on addictive behaviour.
- the APP scale is an effective way of discriminating drug addicts from non-addicts, and predicting the severity of addiction and likelihood of remission during recovery.
-for example, using the APP, Barnes et all found that personality was a significant predictor of ‘heavy’ marijuana use.
- an impulsive personality is an example of a anti-social personality.
-people with this personality are more likely to act without thinking and fail to acknowledge the risks involved in the behaviour, making them vulnerable to addiction.
-there’s a link between personality traits and a genetic/neurological basis. People with insufficient serotonin systems are prone to making reckless decisions as they need immediate gratification.
-Eysenck suggested that5 certain personality traits make individuals more prone to addiction because it helps them to cope with their characteristics:
-psychoticism: aggressive, impulsive and emotionally detached individuals may turn to addictive behaviours as. They’re more likely to engage in risky or impulsive actions.
-neuroticism: anxious and emotionally unstable individuals may use addiction as a way to self-medicate or escape emotional distress.
-addiction fulfils different psychological needs based on personality type.
